Dining on Crow, with a Side of My Own Words, for Thanksgiving

Mea culpa. I was wrong, apparently. Earlier, I implied that Planes, Trains and Automobiles would be inconceivable as an entry in any list of “must see” movies. No sooner had I written that, though, then up popped Roger Ebert with a review of it as one of his Great Movies:

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Some movies are obviously great. Others gradually thrust their greatness upon us. When “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” was released in 1987, I enjoyed it immensely, gave it a favorable review and moved on. But the movie continued to live in my memory. Like certain other popular entertainments (“It’s a Wonderful Life,” “E.T.,” “Casablanca”) it not only contained a universal theme, but also matched it with the right actors and story, so that it shrugged off the other movies of its kind and stood above them in a kind of perfection. This is the only movie our family watches as a custom, most every Thanksgiving… (via rogerebert.com :: Great Movies.)

No only is it – according to Ebert – a great movie, but it is also a particularly “Thanksgiving” movie, a genre which for me pretty much started and stopped with Home for the Holidays (1995), starring Holly Hunter.

I guess I’ll have to add it to the Fellini movies as films I need to rewatch. In fact, I think I’ll watch it this Thanksgiving – instead of La Strada. But I’ll keep Home for the Holidays in reserve, just in case.

zerode

is an over-caffeinated and under-employed grad school dropout, aspiring leftwing intellectual and cultural studies academic, cinéaste, and former poet. Raised in San Francisco on classic film, radical politics, burritos and soul music, then set loose upon the world. He spends his time in coffee shops with his laptop and headphones, caffeinating and trying to construct a post-whatever life.